Hands of resilience

A day after Kim Anderson applied for an artist-in-residence position in Japan, the nation was struck by a devastating earthquake and tsunami. The Ballarat artist has recently returned from the residency where she was touched by the amazing spirit of the Japanese people.

When Kim Anderson spent one year teaching English in Japan, she always wanted to return as an artist.

Several years later the opportunity arrived when she was accepted as the Australia House artist-in-residence funded by the Australia-Japan Foundation.

But her application coincided with the catastrophic earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster which killed thousands and caused widespread devastation.

"I really didn't think they'd go ahead with it, but I'm really glad they did and I think in the end their decision was, it was such a good thing for the people of the region to keep it going and really they need to keep some sense of normality in their lives there after such a terrible incident," she says.

During one month in Echigo-Tsumari, Kim held drawing and printing workshops for locals and studied the village's people as part of her own work.

Detailing every crevice and tiny wrinkle, she aims to capture emotion revealed by the human body.

Her Japanese exhibition incorporated work inspired by the region's topography and the skin of the local people.

"The people of that region particularly, because they work on the land and they're farmers, their hands and their feet are very weathered.

"I photographed the local people's hands and feet and I also combined those images with some drawings inspired by the topographical maps of the region and I also did some frottage of the actual surfaces around."

The final installation also included work by Japanese people who had taken part in her workshops - including students and families from Fukushima.

"The people themselves were just incredibly resilient and just kind of get on with things.

"With the exhibition itself, it became about doing something for them, for the people more so than creating this amazing artistic masterpiece, because they were so incredible and so generous and so giving that it was kind of the only thing I could give back to them - letting them be a part of my artwork."